COUNCILLORS on Coventry’s planning committee will be urged next week to approve plans for a new swimming pool and redevelopment of a sports centre.

The £8million plans for the AT7 sports centre in Courthouse Green near the A444 have been linked by council leaders with their controversial plan to close the historic Foleshill Sports and Leisure Centre, known as Livingstone Baths.

While the outcome of a recent public consultation on the closure plan is still awaited, Coventry City Council’s planning committee will next Thursday consider planning permission for the AT7 scheme.

Council planning officers are to recommend councillors grant planning consent.

The council’s Labour leaders, announcing both plans simultaneously a year ago, said the new facility would provide a better use of limited funds, and would compensate for losing the 1930s baths in Livingstone Road – saying Foleshill residents could switch to the new facility.

But protests have seen 10,000 people signing a petition against the closure of what campaigners say is a valued facility on their doorsteps.

They say the Foleshill community – facing some of the city’s most challenging health issues – would lose out, as many would not easily be able to travel to AT7 a mile away.

The AT7 plans, submitted by bosses Coventry and Warwickshire Award Trust, involve a two-storey extension to include a 25-metre swimming pool and “aquatic centre” with a learner pool, modifications to the existing building and a new car park with 216 spaces.

New facilities will also include a health suite with a sauna, steam room and jacuzzi, changing rooms, and a new entrance foyer.

Upstairs would comprise offices and a function room.

The extension would be built on an existing car park area, and a grass football pitch would also be lost.

The planning officers’ report to councillors states they should consider as “main issues” the “principle of development” and its design, the loss of a grass playing pitch, traffic and parking issues – and not whether or not Foleshill Leisure Centre would close as a result.

It adds: “The transport assessment concludes that the site is accessible by a choice of means of transport with good cycle and pedestrian links and bus routes within 400 metres.”

A council spokesman said: “A decision on the future of Foleshill Sports and Leisure Centre will be taken by councillors in the weeks following this.”

Councillor Phil Townshend, Labour cabinet member for sport, has said Livingstone Baths – long run by the deficit-hit Coventry Sports Trust – was no longer “fit for purpose”, and required taxpayer subsidies of £250,000-a-year.